Hafiz Saeed. PHOTO: REUTERS
The petitioner, JuD leader Malik Zafar Iqbal who himself is nominated in the cases, contended that the 23 FIRs registered at different police stations against Saeed and others described them as members of banned outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which was “factually and legally incorrect”.
Therefore, he argued, the FIRs registered against them were “without lawful authority and of no legal effect”.
He submitted that a full bench of the Lahore High Court had observed in its verdict in 2009 that Saeed and others were not the members of the LeT. The federal and provincial governments, he added, had challenged the LHC judgement in the Supreme Court. However, the apex court had upheld the verdict.
The petitioner maintained that Saeed and other JuD leaders were illegally booked and detained over a resolution of the United Nations.
Iqbal added that the JuD was not involved in terrorist activities but only working for public welfare similar to the operations of the Edhi Foundation. Besides, he maintained, the JuD was also imparting education to poor children.
The petitioner cited the 2009 LHC verdict wherein the court had observed: “Even after the perusal of the said documents we do not find any material declaring that the detention was necessary for the security of the petitioners and there is no evidence that the petitioners had any links with Al-Qaida or any terrorist movement which could endanger the security of Pakistan except for the bald allegations being leveled by the Indian lobby that they are involved in Mumbai attacks, but there is no such evidence or even any linkage borne out from the said documents against the petitioners. There is also no such evidence declaring that the petitioners are involved in anti-state activities and (are a) security risk.”
Last month, the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab in a major crackdown against terror financing registered 23 cases against Saeed and his aides for using five trusts to “funnel funds to terror suspects.
The JuD chief was arrested later in the month while he was traveling between Gujranwala and Lahore.
The CTD said it had registered cases under the Anti-Terrorism Act in Lahore, Gujranwala and Multan against the leadership of banned outfits JuD, LeT and the Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF).
They were raising funds for terror financing using five trusts — Dawatul Irshad Trust, Moaz Bin Jabal Trust, Al Anfaal Trust, Al Madina Foundation Trust and Alhamd Trust. Those booked include Saeed’s brother-in-law Abdul Rehman Makki, Ameer Hamza, Yahya Aziz. MaliK Zafar Iqbal, Muhammad Naeem, Mohsin Bilal, Abdul Raqeeb, Dr Ahmad Daud, Dr Muhammad Ayub, Abdullah Ubaid, Muhammad Ali and Abdul Ghaffar.
The move came in the wake of pressure from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which last year placed Pakistan on its “grey list” of countries with inadequate controls over money laundering and terrorism financing. The watchdog gave Pakistan an October deadline to improve its efforts against terror financing.
The CTD said a large-scale investigation had been launched into the finances of proscribed organisations JuD, LeT and FIF in connection with the implementation of UN sanctions against these designated entities and persons under the directives of the National Security Committee in its meeting on January 1 this year chaired by PM Imran Khan for implementing the National Action Plan.
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